Doug Ivan Hepburn was born in Vancouver, Canada on September 16, 1926. Born with a clubbed foot and cross-eyed, he overcame these handicaps to become a weightlifter of some renown. He set a Canadian record for weightlifting in 1950 and won gold medals at the 1953 World Championships in Stockholm and at the 1954 British Empire Games.

Like his father and step-father he battled with alcoholism, and this combined with depression made for a hard private life. After his successes as a weightlifter, he became a professional wrestler for a short while, before battling his addicition problems and opening a gym at the age of 37. Perhaps inspired with his own battles against addiction, Hepburn became a strong advocate of drug free athletics.

As well as his career as a wrestler and weightlifer, Hepburn was a singer and songwriter, releasing a Christmas tune, the Hepburn Carol.

Hepburn died of a perforated ulcer on November 22, 2000 aged 76.